Summary
The following contains spoilers forStar Wars Jedi: Survivor.
As theStar Wars Jediseries transparently comes to a close with itsupcoming third installment, it’s interesting to look back on its two current titles, what they achieved, and what may yet come to pass. The storytelling structure Respawn has dedicated itself to has been fairly loose when it comes to overarching plots, perhaps due to itspresent impermanence or irrelevance withinStar Warsas a whole, and has thankfully allowed for more intimate and character-driven moments to thrive.
It’s no small feat that the Stinger Mantis crew is beloved in the franchise and, as they only finally came together by the end of the original game, it was mildly disappointing to see that Cal Kestis and his companions had abruptly disbanded in the five years betweenStar Wars Jedi: Fallen OrderandStar Wars Jedi: Survivor. The franchise hasforgone any additional narrative contentin the past, but there’s a case to be made for the third game to have substantial, story-related DLC, especially if the sequel toStar Wars Jedi: Survivoris truly the last opportunity for Respawn to flesh characters out and offer them closure.
Star Wars Jedi’s Send-Off Could Continue the Story with Post-Launch Content
The Stinger Mantis crew looks a bit different than it did back inFallen Orderby the end ofSurvivor, replacing Cere withBode Akuna’s daughter Kata. But, with most of these companions back in Cal’s company again, it would be a mistake not to haveSurvivor’s sequel actually depict their journeys and interactions as a whole for once.
Cere is dead and Cal has taken Kata—who seems completely content and understanding of the situation regarding her father—under his wing, which could inevitably lead to Cal and Merrin raising Kata as their own child. Even so, a galaxy-wide, planet-hopping adventure is seemingly on the menu if Respawn is going to stick with itsStar Wars Jediformula, and it’d be phenomenal to finally see a full game’s worth of witty banter and fun interactions between Cal and his loved ones. If that can’t be achieved within the base game, though, Respawn considering story-related DLC would be a huge boon as it could extend the adventure if only a little bit.
Respawn doesn’t owe players additional content post-launch, and yet it has fostered a narrative and characters who would benefit immeasurably from expansions or elaborate story-related DLC chapters taking place before or after the base game’s events.
So far, the intended direction ofRespawn’sStar Wars Jedifranchisehas been impossible to predict, for better or for worse.Fallen Orderdemonstrates that profoundly with how open-ended and subversively it concludes, whileSurvivorleaves its protagonist and his close ones in a similarly ambiguous position. UnlikeFallen Order, though, there is a lot of catching up forStar Wars Jedito do still regarding one enticing facet of the series thatSurvivoregregiously denied players.
Star Wars Jedi Has No Real Reason to Abandon Its Tried and True Formula
The ending ofFallen Orderstronglyimplies that theStinger Mantis crew would include Cal, BD-1, Cere Junda, Greez Dritus, Merrin, and—depending on whether players pursued and approached it on Bogano—a shy bogling all partaking in exciting adventures throughout the galaxy together. Moreover, the last line of dialogue inFallen Orderencapsulates precisely what needed to be explored thereafter as Cal openly asks, “So where to now?”
The five-year gap betweenFallen OrderandSurvivoris detailed in Sam Maggs’Battle Scarsnovel, though it’ll always be unfortunate that those years weren’t depicted in Respawn’s games.
Rather, while the Stinger Mantis crew givesStar Wars Jedia conceivable wealth of creative adventures, trivial or otherwise, on planets new or old for possible DLC chapters to follow, it would be odd if Respawn suddenly decided its third game would have story-related DLCs when its previous twoJedigames didn’t. For better or for worse, theStar Wars Jedifranchise will probably be neatly packaged in a trilogy without any extraneous content aside from possible future novels serving to pave over deep gaps.
